Chapter 11: Meeting Regulus Black

Marianne made her way down to the library; she had to finish her homework because she was sure that tomorrow wouldn't be any time for it. Sighing she jumped from the last step and made her way into Ms. Pince territory.

Searching for an empty table she chose one that was hidden from sight behind the section of the fantasy books. Marianne had been using said table for the last few times she had to research something.
She enjoyed being out of the direct vision of the librarian and the other students. Nobody bothered her there and could involve her into the house rivalry. Furthermore after finishing her homework she liked to watch them working and interacting with their friends.

With a sigh she concentrated on her Potion homework, Slughorn may be a competent teacher and brewer but the way he sucked up to her and other students with exceptional talents or connections disgusted her.
With a quick look at the topic she had determined which books she would need and made her way to the potion section, which was thankfully directly in her field of vision.

Finishing relatively quickly, Marianne addressed also her charms and astronomy homework, until a silent curse directed her attention to the potion section.
A black haired Slytherin was searching the shelves for a book. At a closer looked she recognized Regulus Black. They had Potions and Herbology together. Biting her lip Marianne was unsure, approaching a Slytherin nowadays was always risky business, particularly as a Hufflepuff female. But letting him searching for a book that she didn't need anymore?
With a sigh Marianne stood up, picked up the book and made her way slowly over to the younger Black. With a hesitant hand she touched his shoulders and went wide eyed when he turned so fast that she nearly got whiplash and trained his wand onto her person. Frightened she looked into the face that resembled Sirius so much, but was a lot more guarded and serve looking.

Regulus relaxed slightly after he recognized his would be attacker as a small Hufflepuff that shared some of his classes with him. He nearly felt bad when he saw those giant blue grey eyes look frightened at him, but ruthlessly suppressed that feeling.

"What do you want?" he asked haughty while he took her in.

She stammered slightly and then held out the book he had been searching for the last two minutes. Annoyed he repeated himself tersely "What do you want?"

As an answer she just tilted her head and looked confused, Regulus nearly rolled his eyes at that.

"For the book." he clarified.

As an answer her eyes just became bigger. "Oh,… nothing really,… I just uh,… I thought that you would need it,… and I'm already finished."

And with that she pressed it in his arms and she hurried back to her table. Slightly disbelieving he looked after her, weird girl.

Puh, that had been nerve-racking, with a quick covert glance she saw how Regulus sat down 3 desks away from her and started with his homework. Relieved that he hadn't decided to hex her, she went back to her star chart while she compared the Black brothers in her mind.

Regulus finished relatively quickly with his homework, even if Potions had never been his best subject, relaxing slightly his gaze fell back onto the Hufflepuff girl.
She had changed during the summer; he could remember that she had been a lot bigger beforehand. She was one of Slughorn's favored students and that was the only thing that he could remember about her, not even her name he could recall. Slightly frowning he thought that it was strange that he didn't know anything about her. He would have to make some subtle enquiries; it wouldn't do for him to not watch fellow gifted classmates. Especially now that his older brother had all but shoved the family duty on his shoulders with his escape to the Potters.

A few days later Regulus was stumped, Marianne Abbott was more than she seemed to be. Not only was she very good at brewing potions, a prodigy for sure, somebody who would someday contribute immensely to the Potions guild. But she also was gifted at writing it seemed, she was a children's book author and from what he heard from his fellow underclassmen, a quiet skilled one.
But that wasn't what made him so interested in her, no Marianne Abbott, halfblood, shy Hufflepuff girl had seemed to have caught the attention of his older brother.

Normally he would dismiss her as another of Sirius conquests but this time it seemed different.
Sirius still had on every finger a few dozen girls and could be found snogging them at any possible and impossible location, but something about the way he treated the Hufflepuff girl was strange. He didn't flirt with her overly so, no he seemed to be tempered by her presence and dare he say protective and tender while interacting with her?
This demanded further investigation. Maybe, just maybe this little Hufflepuff girl was the key to shove the heir title back at Sirius.